Monday, March 28, 2011

The Melting Pot Experience

During Restaurant Week my daughter suggested we go to Melting Pot at the Poughkeepsie Galleria. She really enjoys the restaurant. It's nice with more people so we invited my parents to join us. My dad complains because he has to cook his own food, I told him that's the fun of it.

The first thing I do these days when dining out is look at the wine list to see if they have any Hudson Valley wine then New York State wine. This Melting Pot has a little from each region, Long Island, Hudson Valley and Finger Lakes. From the Hudson Valley they had Brotherhood's Riesling; from the Finger Lakes they had Riesling from Fox Run and Heron Hill, Gewurztraminer from Dr. Frank, White "Signature from Glenora; from Long Island they had Chardonnay from Palmer and Pindar. Paul and I opted for the Palmer "Reserve" Chardonnay which was very nicely balanced and went very well with the cheese fondue.

I think Paul was going to go the healthy route and get a salad, but we shamed him into getting the Restaurant Week menu. James our server who was a CIA grad started us with a pot of the Cheddar Fondue and the Spinach Artichoke Cheese Fondue. Both were very good. For dinner, we ordered Teriyaki Marinated Sirlion and Chicken Provencal and White Shrimp. Dinner comes complete with Rescue Spoons for when you lose your veggies in the pot. To cook dinner our dinner we opted for one pot of Coq au Vin and one pot of Mojo. Unfortunately the server forgot to tell us there was a $5 charge for each so mom was a little annoyed.

Then came dessert. We had our choice of milk, dark and white chocolate fondue. I wanted the white, but lost out to the milk and dark. It didn't matter, it was delicious! Not for the diabetic at heart (dad, who's blood sugar must have been through the roof the next day) I enjoyed the strawberries, cheesecake and pound cake in the chocolate.

A little tip our wonderful server James told us. When you order the three course meals and don't have room for dessert, they'll give you a rain check so you can come back and have your dessert.